A FACULTY member of the University of the Philippines’ Open University will contribute to a multi-level art project about “Deoxyribonucleic Acid repair and immortality” that will be sent to the International Space Station.

Dr. Diego Silang Maranan, associate professor, and his team at Space Ecologies Art and Design are working with Rotifera, which are microscopic aquatic animals with the unique capacity for endless self-repair and cloning.

The project aims to continue the quest to increase life expectancy and explorations to settle and thrive outside the Earth.

“The SEADS Project, dubbed ‘Engines of Eternity’ is a multi-level art project envisioned as a series of mixed media art installations that takes the biological phenomena of DNA repair and cloning. Engines of Eternity, focuses on how Rotifera can provoke audiences to reflect on themes of cultural diversity and immortality,” UP-OU explained.

“Engines of Eternity: ISS is a subproject under Engines of Eternity. This subproject takes interest in treating outer space as a dynamic environment that can actively shape the evolution of the work. The Engines of Eternity team sent an artistic ‘seed’ to the ISS in the form a specially designed visual code instead of sending a finalized photograph or painting to space,” it said.

UP-OU said Maranan and SEADS collaborated in the Rotifers in Space project of Prof. Karine Van Doninck’s laboratory from the University of Namur in Belgium.